Immersive Light Tunnels Create Illusions of Infinity
‘Daydream V.4’ uses sound and image to create tunnels of light.
This article was originally published on November 12, 2014 but we think it still rocks!
Paris-based duo Noemi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto, together known as Nonotak Studio, released their Daydream installation, which uses rows of translucent fabric to create an immersive and otherwordly interactive experience. The rows of fabric that comprise Daydream scatter light that’s projected onto them, creating radiating geometric patterns and immersing visitors in alternating, perception distorting blue shapes. The piece went on display at the MU / STRP Festival for GLOW Next, at Eindhoven, Netherlands. The project’s current incarnation features four side-by-side screens (previously there have been one, two, and three) which give the illusion of tunnels of light.
Which tunnel would you walk choose to walk through?
The four screens makes for a 180-degree experience that alternately overwhelms and disorients the viewer. Daydream V.4 also has a four-output sound system to spatialize the sound, creating a stereophonic cacophony of droning, glitchy noises that fluctuate in time with the visuals.
The symbiotic relationship between sound and image is a result of using Ableton in conjunction with VJ graphics software Resolume. Music acts as the trigger for the looping visuals. “When you get closer and closer to the installation,” explains Nakamoto, “it’s not an object any more—you’re entering a virtual space created by layers of fabric.”
Also on display at the festival is another Nonotak piece, Silhouettes, which we previewed back in the day. The piece is based around the interplay between space and light, “Dots become lines, lines become curves. Directions and trajectories are drawn, space becomes oriented and is set in motion. Space is not vacuum, literally, but it becomes matter and it starts dancing in a field of shadow and light,” its creators say.
The piece is based around controlling 90 hallogen light bulbs with lots of DMX drivers. “Everything is based on shadow,” Nonotak explains. “The canvas looks like it’s moving but the moving elements are only shadows. They are 10,000 wood sticks placed on a 4m by 2m canvas.” You can check it out below:
Learn more about Nonotak here.
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